Thu 26 Feb 2010. Renewable energy obtained from wastewater. Researchers have devised an efficient way to obtain electrical energy and hydrogen by using a wastewater treatment process. The proposed system uses bacteria which consumes the organic material and produces electricity, which produces hydrogen, the energy vector of the future. The results point to further developments of this technology at industrial scale. Currently, there are treatments in which wastewater can flow out to the river or sea without causing any environmental problems. These technologies, however, entail high energy costs, mainly in aeration and pumping, and an elevated economic cost in treating the sludge left over from the treatment process. Wastewater contains an elevated amount of chemical energy in the form of organic contaminants. In order to make use of this energy, researchers from around the world study ways to recover it in the form of hydrogen, a process which efficiently eliminates organic matter from wastewater.
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Physics

Wed 25 Feb 2015. SuperSTEM microscope that can see single atoms is unveiled. The new super powerful electron microscope that can pinpoint the position of single atoms was unveiled at the Science and Technology Research Council's Daresbury Laboratory in Cheshire, England. The microscope will help scientists push boundaries even further in fields such as advanced materials, healthcare and power generation.
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Chemistry

Thu 29 Jan 2015. Unlocking magnetization and polarization simultaneously. Scientists have controlled the structure of a material to simultaneously generate both magnetisation and electrical polarisation, an advance which has potential applications in information storage and processing. Researchers demonstrated that it is possible to unlock these properties in a material which initially displayed neither by making designed changes to its structure. To make a single material that has these two distinct properties - magnetisation and electrical polarisation - is difficult because the electronic requirements for obtaining them in a material are typically contradictory: materials characteristics, such as the crystal structure or the atomic composition, which favour polarisation often disfavour magnetisation. However, materials where polarisation and magnetisation coexist at room temperature are potentially important for low-energy information technology applications.
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Energy

Wed 28 Jan 2015. Reseachers have developed the first autonomous industrialised public lighting system that works with solar and wind energy. Designed for inter-urban roads, motorways, urban parks and other public areas. This would reduce the cost by 20% compared with conventional public lighting systems. The prototype is 10 metres high and is fitted with a solar panel, a wind turbine and a battery. The turbine runs at a speed of 10 to 200 revolutions per minute (rpm) and has a maximum output of 400 watts (W). The generator that has been developed can start working at a wind speed of only 1.7 metres per second (m/s), whereas current wind turbines need more than 2.5 m/s.
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